Cost of Living & Housing in Texas City
Texas City is genuinely affordable relative to the national median, with a below-national-average overall cost-of-living index -- but property taxes vary meaningfully by neighborhood, and a real, disclosed data gap exists on standard homeowners insurance costs specific to this market.
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Learn moreHousing Prices -- Genuinely Affordable
A Redfin snapshot cited a $276,644 median sale price as of June 2026, down 5.9% year over year -- well below the U.S. national median. A separate source cited a broadly consistent $285K figure with 5 months of housing supply as of spring 2026.
Property Taxes -- Varies Substantially by Neighborhood
Ownwell's city-wide median effective property tax rate is 1.24%, but this varies meaningfully by ZIP code: homeowners in ZIP 77568 carry a median effective rate of 2.35% (well above the national and Texas medians), while those in 77590 pay just 1.03% (just above the national median) -- reflecting differences in overlapping school-district and special-assessment-district levies. Confirm the specific ZIP code's rate before assuming a citywide average applies to any particular property.
Insurance -- A Real, Multi-Part Coastal Cost, With a Disclosed Gap
Galveston County (including Texas City) is one of Texas's 14 TWIA-eligible coastal counties, with a statewide average TWIA residential premium of $2,541/year -- Texas City's bay-side (not open-Gulf) location plausibly puts its actual premium below that average, though this was not independently confirmed with a city-specific figure. Galveston County's average NFIP flood insurance premium is $992/year, above the statewide Texas average, reflecting real bay-adjacent flood risk. No reliable, Texas-City-specific standard homeowners insurance premium was found this research pass -- statewide Texas figures disagreed by more than 2x across sources and were judged too imprecise to cite as a local estimate. This is a genuine, disclosed data gap, not an invented number -- get a property-specific quote.
Key takeaways
- Housing is genuinely affordable ($276,644 median per a June 2026 Redfin snapshot, down 5.9% YoY) -- well below the U.S. national median.
- Property tax rate varies substantially by ZIP code within the city (1.03% to 2.35% effective rate) -- confirm the specific rate for any property under consideration.
- Insurance is a real, multi-part cost: TWIA windstorm coverage (statewide avg. $2,541/yr, plausibly lower here given the bay-side rather than open-Gulf location) plus NFIP flood coverage (Galveston County avg. $992/yr) -- a Texas-City-specific standard homeowners premium was not reliably found and is disclosed as a genuine data gap.
- Overall cost of living runs below the national average (BestPlaces index 95.8).
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